Senate vote a sea change for tobacco

Tags:

Text Size

-

+

reset

A landmark bill would authorize the FDA to regulate the industry with a mandate to reduce teen smoking.
Reuters

Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, opposed cloture, but with this decision settled, he and other Republicans may feel more free to come aboard the final bill. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill’s manager, has worked with Enzi already to make changes he has wanted related to how the FDA performs in its new task and the level of monetary penalties that can be imposed on companies for violations in the future.

Enzi is even more aggressive than the House in some cases. Reflecting his input, the Senate bill requires that cigarette health warning labels be large enough to make up 50 percent of the front and rear panels of the package and that the word “warning” appear in capital letters.

Critics argue that the historic role of the FDA makes it not the best choice for the job at hand, and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said he would set up a new agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.

“They are to take poisonous material and get it off the market,” Enzi said of the FDA, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) conceded there is a “built-in challenge.”

“The built-in challenge is this: Their charge when it comes to medicine is safety and efficacy,” Durbin told POLITICO. “Well, there’s no question about judging the safety of tobacco. We’re conceding the obvious point there. It’s not safe.”

“But they certainly know the regulatory regimen in terms of disclosure of ingredients and monitoring and having some control over marketing and merchandising. So I don’t know another agency that can bring all they can bring to it.”

Senate passage this week sets up a situation in which the House could insist on further changes to come closer to its bill passed earlier this spring. But after 10 years of struggle, the temptation will be strong to simply accept the Senate version and send it on to Obama, who has been eager for the victory.

“We’re very hopeful that the bill goes through,” said Gregg Haifley, associate legislative director for the American Cancer Society.

Time, too, is of short supply in Congress. House-Senate negotiators hope to reach agreement this week on a wartime spending bill that is now expected to exceed $100 billion when new pandemic flu money is added. Monday night, Democrats were more hopeful that the House would appoint its conferees Tuesday to bring the issue to a close.

As part of the final bargaining, it’s expected Democrats will ultimately scuttle Senate language limiting public access to controversial photos detailing the treatment of detainees held by the U.S. military. But the administration was still pursuing some compromise that would give Obama more flexibility in trying to move prisoners and shut down the Guantanamo detention facility.

The last major business of the 2009 fiscal year, the spending bill, is already being overtaken by new bills for 2010, beginning Oct. 1. The latest is a $42.6 billion Homeland Security budget unveiled by the House Appropriations Committee late Monday that would cut $204 million from the president’s request but still represents a 6.5 percent increase over the current year.

Tobacco has paid heavily for this shift, beginning with a near 62 cents-per-pack increase in federal cigarette taxes to pay for the SCHIP expansion. And to help pay for the new FDA regulatory role, the industry will be subject to user fees beginning at $235 million next year and tripling to $712 million over the next decade.

Hopefully the cashiers at Wal*Mart will remember to ask the people buying smokes whether they make more than $250,000 per year. Obama wouldn't want any poor people paying the extra 62 cents per pack.

If people ultimately give up smoking as a result of this action then it's a good thing. Only an idiot republican would deny that. Studies of second hand smoke are well documented. Now, studies of third hand smoke (the filthy toxic residue left behind) are getting attention. The Southern California coastal city where I live has outlawed smoking on all beaches and just about everywhere that's public. It's so nice not to have to sun bathe in an ash tray.

"The Southern California coastal city where I live has outlawed smoking on all beaches and just about everywhere that's public."

My neighbor barbecues a lot and the smoke is thick with petrochemicals. But I don't want to outlaw barbecuing just because I don't barbecue and I don't like the smoke. If he wants to risk stomach cancer from all the carcinogens in barbecued meat, that's his choice. I could always move. Ironic that so many of the baby-boomer drug generation are so fanatically anti-tobacco. They were all for freedom - as long as they defined what freedom was. A lot of them are probably proponents of legalizing marijuana.

My neighbor barbecues a lot and the smoke is thick with petrochemicals. But I don't want to outlaw barbecuing just because I don't barbecue and I don't like the smoke. If he wants to risk stomach cancer from all the carcinogens in barbecued meat, that's his choice. I could always move. Ironic that so many of the baby-boomer drug generation are so fanatically anti-tobacco. They were all for freedom - as long as they defined what freedom was. A lot of them are probably proponents of legalizing marijuana.

If your neighbor were considerate his barbeque wouldn't be belching the noxious smoke your way. See, that's kinda the issue. There are a lot of us humans now and we live closer and closer together, so what we do can potentially have an impact on others. We should be mindful of this and act accordingly. What ever happened to do unto others as you would have them do unto you? To smoke around those who don't and not even give it a second thought as to the potential harm it may bring is to have the mindset of a serial killer.

That statistic have been cited by the anti-smoking lobby for decades. Isn't that odd considering the millions of Americans who have either quit smoking or never started? Smokers now constitute a very small percentage of the population, and the places where they can still smoke is highly restricted. Yet the number of people dying from tobacco use never decreases. Some law schools offer courses that teach students how to use statistics to lie. Riddle solved!

If people knew what was in the food they eat - chemicals, hormones and flat out indigestible crap - they be charging the FDA doors to get it cleaned up.

Smoking is just the acceptable "poison" to attack. It smells. Yes, it is a health hazard and yes, I wouldn't want to be in close proximity to me (a smoker) all day long in a confined space, but enjoy your Twinkies, McDonald's and booze. See how those treat you in the end, if you're not waddling to the grave already from them.

I am an adult. I know the consequences. I can read a pack of cigarettes. Leave me the hell alone.

Wonderful .... Once again we're going to "legislate" a problem into obscurity .... Are we doomed to NEVER lear from our past arrogance and stupidity ? .... Can anybody out there spell "P-R-O-H-I-B-I-T-I-O-N ? ..... Not only did the amendment establishing prohibition NOT solve the problem of alcohol consumption , it arguably gave birth to the rmajor rise of organized crime ..... God help us all ( and take another hit on the bong ) .... Frank K .

What would a considerate neighbor do ? .... Have Al Gore drop by , gesture hypnotically , and reverse the wind direction ? As for all of us living so "close-by" each other , were you 'forced' to purchase the home that you did ? ..... Get a life , take off your Birkenstocks , trade in your Volvo , and stop whining ...... The entire population of America could actually be fit into any one state in America the of Georgia or larger ( no matter which way the prevailing winds usually blow ) ..... Frank K . (N.Va.)

"After being stymied repeatedly by former President George W. Bush, Democrats wasted no time in January before moving through legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover an additional 4.1 million children, chiefly from working-class families".

You know, the ones who smoke! Read up on it!

I don't see McDonalds (et al) taxed for selling fried fat, also consumed by the "working class"! I don't see the bailed-out bankers taxed for the greed of their corporate partners importing substandard goods for the "working class" to consume at wally world with no ill effect?! No one dies there, watch the ads!

Same old game, get a credit card and pay the corporate store! Your kid got sick? Fill out the forms with the fine print and worry about it later... much later!

Tobacco is the least of your worries, the drug war rages on the southern border. Forgive a "working class" fool, but there might be a job there, sure as hell ain't any here!

Idiots! Can I waterboard the next doctor that I can't pay for or just shoot him for Jesus?

The lawmakers are terrified what will result from the huge issue of the American healthcare insurance industry. With trillions of dollars at stake and millions of lives at stake, the noble members of congress continue to delay and divert attention to abortion, affirmative action nominees and new ways to save the nation from the sinful tobacco industry.

It is the economy stupid and the healthcare industry is the big thing that have a huge effect on whether or not the congress looks the same after the next election. Baucus and Grassley are the current members to test the waters, again. Now Obama shows signs of putting single-payer back on the table and donations are flowing in to pay for the advertising the wake up the voters. Yet, mainstream media is do its best to tamp down this pararie fire.

Ahhh, but lets do a story on larger warning labels for packs of cigarettes and save all the children from tobacco. Most are smoking dope and others are taking prescription drugs and crack, but let us focus on the old favorite - cigarettes. OMG!